Tough Love Blues
by ms.maxwell
Summary: Spike goes after a hefty bounty. Bumpy ride, love, betrayal, death, and loss.
1. The Billionairess

I don't own Cowboy Bebop; I'm just supporting it by writing this fic.  
  
The idea behind this and the plot line is 100% me. Please don't steal my idea. Thank you.  
Tough Love Blues  
  
----------------------------------Chapter 1: The Billionairess ------------- --------------  
  
Spike walks out of the bathroom with a towel around his waste, a toothbrush in his mouth, and a shirt over slung over his shoulder; another early morning on the Bebop.  
  
It's quiet. On the Bebop? .I must be going deaf. Faye? Ed? Quiet?  
  
Spike continues down the hall lazily. He peers into the main room. Same old yellow couch, same old Jet at the computer, Ein by his feet, the girls?  
  
"Hey hey Spike. I got some good news for you. The girls are gone for the day. Hunting a small fry bounty. I need a break from them, so I sent them on a goose chase," Jet smiled at Spike, "Though we are low on money, so I have even more good news. I just got a fresh new, huge bounty."  
  
"New bounty?" Spike muttered as he put his shirt on.  
  
"Yea, Catalina Sarighi, billionairess. Her great grandfather hit it big with some major drug smuggling and working as a hit man. Her grandfather, Antonio, then inherited the money. He didn't share his father's passion for a criminal lifestyle but instead took up botany and medicine. He then started a cult called Children of Demeter, that bred very potent medicinal herbs and even produced new species of plants by breeding two different species."  
  
"Plant mutants, huh?"  
  
"You can say that. Anyways, he passed the Children of Demeter on to his son who then developed and used strong herbal poisons to manipulate some more wealth into his pocket. Ever since Antonio Sarighi's son took over, the government has been keeping a suspicious eye on the cult, but since they have monopolized medicinal plant treatments along with the breeding of Grey Ash used on Venus to treat spore sickness they are reluctant to act. Some leaks out through burglary but never enough to shift the monopoly. Catalina has been in charge now for 2 years and for some reason wants complete ownership and control of hyperspace."  
  
"Why would she want that?"  
  
"Power most likely. She's supposedly very ambitious, and power hungry. She has threatened every planet, asteroid; you name it, with a natural biological attack. Would she have the guts to pull it off? The government doesn't want to wait to find out."  
  
"Can she pull it off?"  
  
"Easily. The Children of Demeter is so large and many influential wealthy people are in on it. Doctors, Nurses, Cooks, Generals in an army, people who come in contact with people's lives may be in on the plan and will do it for her. Should they fail, her wealth will see to it."  
  
"Freaky, how much?"  
  
"45 million woolongs"  
  
"Nice, bounty hunters all over the universe must be hunting her down"  
  
"Not yet, Big Shot hasn't announced it, since the bounty is shaky. I got it off one of my contacts."  
  
"Good old Jet." 


	2. Breaking an Entry

------------------------------------ Chapter 2: Breaking an Entry ---------- ------------------------- ::Next Day:: Spike puts a cigarette to his lips and lights it just before he starts the Swordfish, ready to go on course to Ganymede.  
  
"SPIKE! Let me in on this bounty! Pleeeaase. You know you'll need my help." Faye whined over the videophone.  
  
"No, this one is mine."  
  
"Fine, but don't come to me for help when your skinny ass is caught and about to be executed," she hissed.  
  
"You're being obnoxious."  
  
Spike turns off the videophone to avoid her annoying voice. His mind set on a single goal; to capture Catalina Sarighi.  
  
Hefty reward money, you'd think this would be harder than storming a mansion.  
  
He parks the swordfish about 2 miles from the mansion. He continues on foot.  
  
::Soldiers at the Gate::  
  
Two soldiers stand guard before the gate to the mansion in an almost hypnotic state from the lack of excitement their occupation produces. Suddenly, they hear a gunshot and glass breaking. Glass showers on them, and they look up to see a camera has been shot.  
  
"Sorry about that. I've never been one to make a quiet entrance."  
  
They look down to see where the voice is coming from, only to see a man dressed in blue for a second, before he spin kicks them to unconsciousness.  
  
Spike looks at the gate, then the keypad on the post, which opens the gate with the correct password. He slips a small screen under the keypad and attaches the videophone.  
  
"Hey Jet, can you kindly open the gate for me?"  
  
"Gladly my fellow rich man," he chuckled, "Hey Ed! Spike has a job for you."  
  
"Oh Edward do!" she replies.  
  
The gates smoothly open.  
  
"Thanks." Spike musters before turning off the videophone. He puts one hand on his gun.  
  
The camera coming offline must have caught their attention. So where are they?  
  
He spots another camera and shoots at it before continuing up the driveway in a dark fog. Different herbs surround the driveway, and a small sprinkler system is on somewhere not too far, leaving an eerie soft sound echoing through the sticky hot mist.  
  
Freaky  
  
The front of the mansion has a big wide staircase and an overhead, almost as though it was once used for valet parking. Hanging from the overhead are plants with strong relaxing odors. He pushes the door open, which is unlocked.  
  
Strange.  
  
Keeping his back to the wall and his gun by his face, pointing up at the ceiling.. Or hanging plants, he makes his way in.  
  
He peers around the main room. A marble floor is slippery from the thick fog. A grand staircase is straight ahead of him and on the sides of it is a waterfall trickling down into a fountain of herbal water. Plants grow around the fountains, and walls. Vines crawl down the stairs. Above him is a skylight, only ironically, there is no light; only a dark sky that bears a new moon.  
  
Jet was right about the botany.  
  
To the right! Footsteps. He instinctly snaps his head in that direction and points his gun towards the origin of the sound. A shadow is approaching. And a man in a burgundy pin stripe suit follows the shadow. He has raven locks that curl down to his shoulders and dark glasses cover his eyes. The most distinct feature is the cold barrel of his gun pointed in Spike's direction.  
  
"You a bounty hunter boy?" His voice is raspy, aged, confident, and to the average person, scary.  
  
Spike's teeth clench and his eyes an icy glare. "And you are?"  
  
"Forgive me, I am Renaldo DiPego. That is all you need to know." He fires a shot at Spike who manages to evade it and fire back twice. The first shot sends the gun flying out of DiPego's hand and then second hits him in the knee causing him to fall to the other. Renaldo looks up at Spike and smiles.  
  
In his glasses Spike sees the reflection of soldiers behind him. He turns around and fires several shots at the soldiers, injuring two.  
  
At Spike's left, also where he came in, there is another group of soldiers who shoot at him, hitting him in the shoulder. Spike winces in pain then runs at the soldiers he killed a few seconds ago and rolls on the ground picking up another gun and shooting both into the new group of soldier.  
  
Spike falls forward to his knees. He was shot from behind in the thigh from a soldier on the grand staircase. Soldiers surround him, all guns pointed at him. The Captain comes forward and knocks his gun against Spike's head knocking him unconscious.. 


End file.
